[council] Information about E-Commerce Directive

["Maria Farrell" <maria.farrell@xxxxxxxxx>]

Here's the information promised about the E-Commerce Directive.  A point
about required information to be provided on commercial and non-commercial
websites came up during the DENIC pressentation on WHOIS. This information
tries to explain the EU-wide requirement that contact information be
provided on commercial websites.
 
Paragraph 17 of the recital (on page 3) describes what's meant by an
'information society service provider', generally understood to be a
commercial venture; "any services normally provide for remuneration, at a
distance, by means of electronic equipment for the processing (including
digital compression) and storage of data, and at the individual request of a
recipient of the service".  There is a description of different possible
kinds of information society service providers in paragraph 18 of the
recital. 
 
Article 5 of the Directive proper (on page 10) on 'general information to be
provided' describes the information required.  It's required to be easily
accessible, but there's no ongoing accuracy requirement.
 
 
 
The full text of the directive is at
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2000/l_178/l_17820000717en0001001
6.pdf
 
all the best, Maria